Writing and Reading, Romance and Erotica

Someone named Richard Ridyard has been swiping lines from all over — including from Stephen King — and has just been exposed big-time by Angel Zapata. Thanks to Writtenwyrdd for the link.

One thing which makes this case notable is that, unlike every single other plagiarism case I’ve looked at in the last couple of years, there is no one sticking up for Mr. Ridyard here. Every other plagiarist who’s been shoved into the limelight has had dozens or hundreds of fans who’ve rallied round with their indignation and counter-attacks to let the accusers know just how horrible and mean they’re being. There’s nothing like that here, and I have to say it’s refreshing. Flash writers seem to be all on the same page when it comes to the evils of plagiarism and the need to find it, shine a light on it and stamp it out. Kudos to the flash folks.

It’s also nice to see so many flash editors and publishers saying straight out that they’re deleting Mr. Ridyard’s work from their sites and blacklisting him. (The only publisher which tried to deny the charge was Valentine Publications, where Mr. Ridyard is an editor.) After all the denials of interest or responsibility, and attempts to brush off accusations and queries, and to ignore clear evidence by the larger publishers in earlier cases, it’s good to see editors and publishers willing to take action and state in public that they’re doing so. Kudos to them too.